The time has come to simplify the federal budget process. Hardly anyone likes the complicated and arcane procedure the U.S. government uses to arrive at a budget. It consumes enormous amounts of executive branch and congressional time and even then is rarely completed. Deadlines are missed, and government agencies frequently run on ”continuing resolutions” rather than regular appropriations.
A drastic simplification is in order. Most spending decisions should be made for two or more years at a time, and possibly the whole budget should be shifted to a biennial basis. Congressional committees should be restructured to combine the authorization and appropriation functions. The budget itself should be simplified and the number of line items greatly reduced, actions that would help shift congressional attention toward major policy issues and away from detailed micro-management.
